<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Day 6 - Tears by GemmaRose</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26864758">Day 6 - Tears</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose'>GemmaRose</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Clonetober [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Freckles, Gen, Pillow Fights, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Sleep Deprivation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 18:28:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,340</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26864758</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>He's already karking <i>blond</i>, what's one more little mutation?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>CC-2224 | Cody &amp; CT-7567 | Rex, CT-7567 | Rex &amp; Anakin Skywalker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Clonetober [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947976</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>100</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Day 6 - Tears</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>For all their wonders, blacks weren’t perfectly sun-proof. Even if the face wasn’t a dead giveaway, the tan-lines of their armour gave away any brother in civvies. Rex knew this well. He also knew that after his first week-long ground campaign with General Skywalker, his hair had lightened and several other vode had discovered theirs turning from near-black to a deep brown. General Skywalker had actually laughed, when the medics came to him asking if such an occurrence was normal, and shown them holos of himself and General Kenobi from his padawan years, when he was even more gangly-looking and his skin far paler, his messy hair a much deeper brown-gold than the soft, sorta amber-y colour it was now.</p><p>So, sunlight did more than just cause skin irritation and darkening, it cause hair to lighten too. Cody promised to make sure that news spread to the rest of the GAR, and Rex had put it out of his mind. Until a month later, when he got back to his bunk after an unexpectedly long ground campaign and found himself with more marks on his face than he remembered leaving with. They didn’t vanish when he scrubbed at them with plain old soap, and when he got in the ‘fresher to try using something else he was forced to concede that it was definitely not dirt ground into his skin. The strange, dark specks were on his arms too, and the backs of his hands, and on the shoulder where he’d lost a pauldron in a speeder crash and had to walk three hours back to camp. Everywhere his armour hadn’t covered, everywhere the sun had gotten to him, he was marked.</p><p>He stuck his bucket back on once he was out of the shower and into fresh blacks, and frowned at the HUD readout which proclaimed his body temperature perfectly normal. The mission briefing had listed the early signs of a few local diseases, and this matched none of them. If his temperature was still normal tomorrow morning, he would chalk this up to weird sun stuff and continue on as usual</p><p>(-●-)|-o-|(-●-)</p><p>His temperature was normal in the morning, but taking off his bucket for the strategy meeting with General Skywalker earned him a pair of very wide, very blue eyes laser-focused on his face. “Is, uh. Is something wrong, Sir?” he ventured, and General Skywalker’s stare turned into a wide grin.</p><p>“Rex, you never told me you have <i>freckles</i>!”</p><p>“Is that what this stuff is called?” he asked, gesturing at his face with a frown.</p><p>“Yeah. Wait, you didn’t know what freckles were?” General Skywalker snorted. Rex frowned at him more sternly. “Sorry, just, really weird gap in your vocabulary.”</p><p>“Clones don’t have freckles, Sir.” he said curtly. Not proper ones, anyways. But hey, he already had a visual defect, what was one more? It wasn’t like the longnecks could take him off the front lines, not unless General Skywalker complained. Which he was pretty sure wouldn’t happen. His Jedi didn’t give a flying bantha shit about, well, most things Rex had been taught the Jedi would expect of them, and he wasn’t a whiner.</p><p>“Well, obviously some do.” General Skywalker smiled. “They’re cute. Maybe next time a kid sees you without your bucket they won’t run crying to their moms.”</p><p>“<i>One</i> brat got scared!” Rex argued, and General Skywalked clapped him on the shoulder.</p><p>“And next time, that number can be zero.”</p><p>Rex rolled his eyes, and focused on the holomap as his General started pulling up information about their next deployment.</p><p>|-o-|(-●-)|-o-|</p><p>“Hey, Rex, you won’t believe-” Cody stopped short, blinking at him from the doorway, two mugs of caff in hand. “What happened to your face?”</p><p>“Sunshine.” he grunted, levering himself up out of his rack. “Why are you in my room at-” he squinted at his clock. “0500?”</p><p>“Doesn’t matter, I brought caff.” Cody said, walking in and pressing one of the mugs into his hand. Which was good, because if he’d woken Rex this early for anything less than the ship on kriffing fire, showing up empty-handed was cause for murder. Rex took the mug with a nod, and swallowed a third of it in one gulp. Cody sat down next to him. “So, what do you mean sunshine did this?” he asked, poking a cluster of freckles under Rex’s left eye.</p><p>“I mean, the kriffing sun got on my face, and I got freckles instead of a tan.”</p><p>“Freckles.” Cody said, his eyes unnervingly wide.</p><p>“Yeah. General Skywalker said they happen to some folks. Best guess is I’ve got them ‘cuz of my hair.” he gestured at the blond stubble on his head, and something in Cody seemed to break, his brother doubling over and outright <i>wheezing</i> with laughter.</p><p>“That- that explains <i>so much</i>.” he gasped, shoulders shaking so hard the caf in his mug threatened to slosh out onto his fingers. Rex downed the rest of his own and swiped Cody’s drink for himself. It was all but gone by the time Cody managed to un-curl himself, cheeks wet and eyes still shiny with tears. “A couple of shinies painted Skywalker’s face with those. Got half of Tano’s done too before Kenobi caught them at it.” he giggled again, still smiling so wide it looked more than a little painful.</p><p>“How long have you been up, vod?” Rex asked, watching as Cody tried and failed to pull himself together.</p><p>“Long enough that if I show my bucket in Medical I’d be tranqed faster than an angry gundark.” he replied, that manic smile still on his face.</p><p>Rex threw back the last of Cody’s caff, set both mugs on the floor, and turned to his brother with a stern look. He’d never been able to order Cody around, and technically he still lacked the authority to do so, but he wasn’t afraid to fight dirty. “You need to sleep.”</p><p>“Tonight, I promise.” Cody managed to get himself at least mostly under control, offering some semblance of an apologetic smile. Rex held his gaze for a few long seconds, and then Cody was cracking up again, tears running down his cheeks. Kriff, Rex wished he had a camera. Bly would hold this over Cody’s head for <i>ages</i>, given half a chance.</p><p>“No, you’re going to sleep <i>now</i>.” he insisted, and shoved Cody down onto the mattress. It was a testament to how badly sleep-deprived he was that his brother went down with only a firm shove. He didn’t stay down easily though, and unlike his brother Rex couldn’t get out of the day’s duty shift on medical leave.</p><p>“Do not <i>make me</i> comm Medical.” he threatened. Cody attempted to bite him.</p><p>“Hey, that’s Wolffe’s trick.” Rex feinted a punch at Cody’s face, letting himself ‘miss’ and grabbing the pillow behind his brother’s head. “Ha!” he swung it into Cody’s face, then leaned his weight on it, pressing the cheap fabric-covered fluff against his brother’s mouth and nose. Cody punched at his side, but one knee on his sternum and the other on his right arm stopped that quick enough.</p><p>“Rex, have you seen-”</p><p>“Cody?” Rex glanced at his General in the doorway, and cracked a grin at the sight of ink dripped across his cheekbones and the bridge of his nose. It was a little funny. “Right here, sir.” he jerked his head at his brother, who yelled something into the pillow which was probably a curse.</p><p>“Riiight.” Anakin said slowly. “Ahsoka and I will be in the usual meeting room, when you’re done...”</p><p>“Making sure he sleeps, Sir.” Rex nodded. Already, Cody’s struggles were going sluggish. Another minute and he’d be out cold.</p><p>“Alright. I’ll make sure Obi-wan is aware.”</p><p>“See you in a few, Sir.” he nodded again, the nearest he could get to a salute without risking Cody fighting back again. Honestly, if his stupid freckles were going to cause this much trouble, maybe he should look into covering them up somehow.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Apologies to any not-logged-in readers, but due to an ex who refuses to leave me alone I have had to disable anon comments. Kudos are still open though, and if you want to scream (or would like me to write a fic for you) come check me out on Pillowfort! No account required to get my discord, and I'm always happy to chat. [<a href="https://www.pillowfort.social/GemmaRose">Link</a>]</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>